Waylon's Bus

Waylon's Bus
written by Wade Staley

We both worked for Waylon Jennings back in the late 70's and we had played at the collage in Morgantown, W,VA. A wheel seal and bearings went out on the 1966 Eagle we had leased. A friend of Waylons who had Coal trucks sent a young man over the next morning to fix it. Mississippi had to go have a tooth pulled, so I sent the rest of the crew on with the band bus. Bill got his tooth pulled and came back to ride with me to Columbus, Ohio, our next show. The man fixed the wheel, (we thought) and here we went. Got on the four lane going up the mountain,bus did fine, but when we started down the mountain, I heard a loud pop and felt the right rear side of the bus go down. I looked in my right side mirror and all I could see was the two drive wheels with the axle coming away from the bus. The wheels hit the guard rail, bounced behind the bus, went across the median, bouncing down the south bound lane and went off the side of the mountain. I locked the brakes down as hard as I ever have. Bill was in a bunk and when I looked around to my right side, he was standing beside me on the steps. The bus went up next to the guard rail and stopped after sliding about 100 feet. When I finally got the bus stopped, the guard rail was in the middle of the bus, we had ran out of guard rail. When we open the entry door, you could see about 1000 feet down the mountain. It is a miracle that the bus did not slide another 15 feet and turned over and go down the side of that mountain. I think the man upstairs was ridding with us that day. Me and Bill both changed our underwear, the hi way patrol called a wrecker for me and took bill to get a rental truck to hall the gear in the bays to Columbus. When I got to the garage where they towed me, they told me that the young man who did the repair, put the lock washer for the seal and bearings on backwards and this let the wheels and axel come off the bus. One day on the road that me and Bill will never forget.

William McShane The tandems, with the axle still attached, rolled and bounced across the other lanes of traffic and wound up out in a field. Almost took out a couple of cars going the other way.And I remember the tow truck having to lift the bus from the back bumper and his partner sitting in the driver's seat , facing backwards, steering the bus. They ran a cable out into the field and grabbed the wheels and axle.
July 17 at 4:59am ·
Like · Follow Post · Report · July 21, 2011 at 8:31pm
Doug Cupp, Edward C Adkins and 2 others like this.

Edward C Adkins I just put it in the doc's section so it's easier to find after awhile.
July 16, 2011 at 11:17am · Like

Wade Staley Thanks Ed !
July 16, 2011 at 11:23am · Like

William McShane The tandems, with the axle still attached, rolled and bounced across the other lanes of traffic and wound up out in a field. Almost took out a couple of cars going the other way.And I remember the tow truck having to lift the bus from the back bumper and his partner sitting in the driver's seat , facing backwards, steering the bus. They ran a cable out into the field and grabbed the wheels and axle.
July 16, 2011 at 5:59pm · Like

Arthur Moon Mullins Those days it was always an adventure......what fun.
July 17, 2011 at 9:42am · Like